etsu: 2011-2014

Women in the Military

I never really thought about the different forms of harassment there is within the military, towards men and women both. We are all aware and recognize the “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” protocol, but the other types of discrimination and harassment is rarely spoken about. I knew that there was a large amount of sexual misconduct found in our military today, but never thought it was to this extreme. Watching the movie, and hearing the first person accounts of rape and assaults, it was hard to hear. Growing up in a military family, I believe we were kind of taught not to question this form of misconduct and let it slide, which is why I believe there are so many cases that go unsolved and so many cases of rape that just go unreported. There is a stigma that revolves around the personnel found within our military system, that all men are up-standing citizens that do no harm, and even when harm is done, it is swept under the rug and kept quit to prevent a stir of emotions towards the military. It is not fair that men and women are forced into secrecy after a traumatic occurrence such as rape, out of fear of being blamed, being taunted, and honestly just being ignored.